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October Thirty-First is Halloween（万圣节）.Itis an unofficial holiday that celebrates the frighteningand strange.We celebrate with a reportabout a nineteenth-century American writer.Hisstories were some of the most frightening andstrange ever written.
Halloween is mostly a holiday for children,who like to be frightened.Yet many grown peopleobserve Halloween,too.Those who love thewritings of Edgar Allan Poe think Halloween is thebest time of year to celebrate them.Poe is mostfamous for his stories and poems of strangeness（奇妙）,mystery,and terror.
He wrote about people buried while stillalive.About insanity（疯狂，精神错乱）and death.About dreams that become real......or reality thatseems like a dream.
Edgar Allan Poe died in the city of Baltimorein Eighteen-Forty-Nine.Now,in that city,anunusual party takes place every Halloween.
In the dark of night,visitors go to the churchground where Poe is buried.Everything is quiet.Then a voice calls out.It is Poe! No,it is just anactor,reading Poe's work.
Reading stories was one of the mostimportant forms of enjoyment in Edgar Allan Poe'stime.Poe created many of these"short" stories.They appeared in different publications.
Horror stories already were popular whenPoe began writing.Critics say he wrote theperfect horror story.
Poe also wrote detective stories（侦探故事）.These were mysteries adout crimes,such asmurder.The mysteries are solved by aninvestigator called a detective（侦探）.He or she is ableto find important,hidden meanings in facts.
The horror and detective stories Poe createdremain extremely（非常地）popular in books andmovies.
Edgar Allan Poe's work is not easy to read.His language is difficult to understand today.Andmost of his writing describes very unpleasantsituations and events.
His story"The Pit and the Pendulum." forexample,is about the mental（精神的，智力的）torture（折磨）of a prisoner.Each time the prisonersaves himself from death,a new and morehorrible form of death threatens him.
Another story is"The Masque of the RedDeath." In it,a terrible disease-the RedDeath-has killed half the population of acountry.The ruler of the country shuts his castleagainst the disease.He and his wealthy friends areinside.They pass the time by having parties.They believe the Red Death will not find them.But it does.
Edgar Poe was born in Eighteen-O-Nine.His parents were actors.At that time,actorswere not accepted by the best society.Edgarwas a baby when his father left the family.Hewas two years old when his mother died.He wastaken into the home of a wealthy businessman,John Allau.He then received his newname-Edgar Allan Poe.John Allan never officially madeEdgar hisson.In fact,he came to dislike（讨厌）him strongly.
As a young man,Edgar attended theUniversity of Virginia.He was a good student.Buthe liked to drink alcohol and play card games formoney.Edgar was not a good player.He lostmoney he did not have.John Allan refused to payEdgar's gambling（赌博）losses.So,Edgar leftthe university.He began working as a writer andeditor for monthly magazines.
Edgar Allan Poe worked hard.He became asuccessful editor.Yet he was not well-paid orwell-known.His life was difficult.He was poor,and he was troubled by sicknesses of the bodyand mind.Poe suffered from depression（沮丧，消沉）.He feared he was insane（患精神病）.Hedrank alcohol to escape his fears.The alcoholhad a very bad effect on him.
At the age of twenty-seven,he marriedVirginia Clemm.She was the daughter of his father's sister.She was only thirteen years old.For a time,it seemed that Poe would find somehappiness.But his wife was sick for most of theirmarriage.She died in Eighteen-Forty-Seven.Poe died two years later,at the age of forty.Hewas found dead in Baltimore after days of heavydrinking.
Through all his crises,Edgar Allan Poeproduced many stories,poems,and works ofcriticism.Some of his stories won prizes.Yet he didnot become famous until Eighteen-Forty-Five.That was when his poem" The Raven" （渡鸦）waspublished.
There is no question that Poe suffered fromemotional（情绪的，情感的） problems in his life.Once critic（评论家）said Poe's spirit was torn.He said Poe's stories were often about his owndivided nature.Each person in the story showeda different side of the writer.There is a question,however,about Poe's importance.Some criticssay he was one of America's best writers.Others disagree.
Critic Vincent Buranelli says Poe discovereda new artistic universe,It is a universe ofdreams.It is a place where the line betweenreality and unreality（非现实，不存在之物）isextremely thin.
Even those who praise Poe agree that thereare many difficulties in his work.These difficultiesplace Poe's writing outside the main body ofAmerican litersture.Most American writing isrealistic.Poe's interests and way of writing werenot realistic at all.
Poe's work has been praised most inFrance.He had a great influence on manyFrench writers,including the poetsCharles-Pierre Baudelaire and Stephane Mallarme.
Poe's best-known poem is the "The Raven."Some people love it.They say it is like music.Others hate it.They say it sounds forced andunnatural（矫饰的，不真实的）-like bad music."TheRaven" is about a man whose great love,Lenore,has died.She is gone forever.But the man cannotaccept that all happiness is gone.He sits aloneamong his books late at night.He hears a noise atthe window.Here is the beginning of the poem:
Once upon a midnight dreary,while Ipondered,
weak and weary
Over many a quaint and curious volume offorgotten lore-
While I nodded,nearly napping,suddenlythere came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping,rapping at mychamber door.
"Tis some visitor,I muttered,"tapping at mychamber door-
Only this and nothing more."
The man looks out the window and seesonly blackness.
Deep into that darkness peering,long I stoodthere wondering,fearing.
Doubting,dreaming dreams no mortal everdared
to dream before:
But the silence was unbroken,and thestillness
gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was thewhispered
word,"Lenore?"
This I whispered,and an echo murmuredback the word,"Lenore!"
Merely this and nothing more.
But there is something at the window.It is alarge black bird-a raven.It comes into the roomlike the spirit of death and hopelessness.Theraven can speak just one word:'nevermore'-meaning'never again'.We know the raven willnever leave the man's room.
But the Raven,sitting lonely on the placidbust,
spoke only
That one word,as if his soul in that one wordhe did outpour.
Nothing farther than the uttered-not afeather
then he fluttered-
Till I scarcely more than muttered,"Otherfriends have flown before-
On the morrow he will leave me,as myHopes have flown before."
Then the bird said,"Nevermore."